BIRMINGHAM Coroner Aidan Cotter has called for "better communication" between the authorities and prisons to try to prevent the deaths of prisoners in cells.

BIRMINGHAM Coroner Aidan Cotter has called for "better communication" between the authorities and prisons to try to prevent the deaths of prisoners in cells.

Mr Cotter said responsibility should not lie solely with prisons authorities and that families, lawyers and even the courts should, as a matter of routine, inform prisons if a prisoner was deemed to be a risk. ..TEXT Mr Cotter made his comments after hearing how Alan Brittain, aged 56, of Delhurst Road, Great Barr, hanged himself while on remand at Birmingham Prison in January, 2003.

A jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The inquest heard how Mr Brittain, a retired lorry driver, had made two previous attempts on his own life but the prison was unaware of this.

Mr Cotter, who criticised the time it had taken for the inquest to be completed, said: "It is now three years, eight months and 19 days since Mr Brittain died and we have just completed the inquest.

"It is unfair to prison staff, families and if there are lessons to be learned what can be the virtue of waiting for three years to learn them?"